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The canal authority at the end of March increased the number of daily vessel slots available following an improvement in actual and projected water levels on the Gatun Lake.

The UAE’s AD Ports Group and the Iraqi government have signed a preliminary agreement to develop the Al-Faw Grand Port, its economic zone and freight-supporting infrastructure.

Without a significant increase in EU funding, the ambitious emissions-cutting targets for 2030 and 2050 will be difficult to meet, the coalition told the European Commission this week.

The recommended fine, which requires approval from an FMC judge, aims to rebuke the world’s largest shipping company for alleged multiple violations around detention and demurrage billing.

The railroad is gathering information on how to streamline the flow of trucks through terminals ahead of launching an appointment system later this year at three key hubs.

Demand for alternative fuels is set to rise exponentially as huge numbers of dual-fueled ships are delivered over the next two years while major hubs are rapidly developing their green bunkering capabilities.

The air freight market is off to a strong start this year with volume out of Asia up 11% in the traditionally slow first quarter while rates rose steadily through March.

The largest truckload carriers increased revenue 40% from 2020 through 2022, but their rocket ran out of fuel last year amid tumbling spot market prices, lower contract rates and falling fuel surcharges.

Norfolk Southern will join CSX in running inter-port trains between New York/New Jersey and Baltimore to limit disruptions involving cargo rerouted after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The decision underscores that ship diversions around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope will likely last through at least the first half of 2024, if not longer, as carriers see no short-term resolution to the uncertain security situation in the region.

The link-up between the two companies is the latest industry partnership that caters to the desire of shippers for bundled global freight planning, execution and tracking.

The new vessel-sharing agreement will see the introduction of non-CMA CGM ships into a string that runs between the West Coast of South America and ports in the US Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

Elevated dwell times are not just a function of a lack of planning on the part of the railroads, but an inevitability that shippers need to consider for planning processes, writes analyst Larry Gross.

A 6% reduction in overall freight helped depress LTL revenue in 2023, the top 40 carrier rankings show, despite a gain in shipments many carriers enjoyed after Yellow’s collapse.

The electronics giant said the “staggering” detention and demurrage charges it paid for US imports carried by Cosco and OOCL threaten its ability to serve the North American market.

Negotiations between the railroads and the Teamsters have hit a stumbling block over salary and mandatory rest periods, prompting the union to schedule an April 8 start date for voting on a possible strike notice.

The latest capacity push comes from a three-member consortium led by Wan Hai Lines, which will begin a Southeast Asia-West India connection from the end of April. 

The partnership takes advantage of growing demand that is encouraging more cross-border LTL shipping between the US and Mexico.

The US Postal Service is replacing FedEx with UPS as its primary air cargo carrier, reinforcing an existing partnership focused on home deliveries.

Container lines are increasing capacity to a 17-month high in May and have pulled back on their blank sailings to adjust to longer transits due to Red Sea disruptions.

Blue Yonder’s $893 million of One Network, a midsize supply chain vendor, comes amid slowing logistics software demand and heightened competition in supply chain software.

With the busiest roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) port in the US closed to ship traffic, automobile manufacturers and ro/ro carriers are shifting to alternative ports.

Nearby gateways are preparing to handle the diversion of vessels and freight that would have landed at Baltimore at least through May following the port’s indefinite closure.

The cost of moving flatbed loads from Baltimore to warehouses in western Maryland jumped more than $100 per load compared with February’s average cost, according to data from DAT Freight & Analytics.

Given the ample supply of marine chassis available in the US, chassis providers are confident they can handle any rerouted cargo from the closed Port of Baltimore to other East Coast ports in the short term without issue.

US importers accustomed to shipping through Baltimore are facing the prospect of higher drayage and warehousing costs as they look for drivers, chassis and space at alternate ports.

While China’s shipping and ports behemoth was cautious about the outlook for 2024, it said inventory restocking in Europe and the US would drive an increase in demand for container shipping.

ONE and Yang Ming say the partnership will maintain most of its existing services into next year as it readies for a direct-call model and “speed buffers” to boost schedule reliability.

Recently passed House legislation amending landmark shipping reform takes a hard approach to China’s maritime influence on US ports but holds back on reining in the limited antitrust exemption container lines use to participate in alliances, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Carriers have been unable to shake a perception among shippers that surcharges were being set above cost-recovery levels, with a report this week directly accusing carriers of “profiteering” from the ETS.

Some of the 18 container ships that were due to arrive at the now-closed Port of Baltimore over the next couple of weeks are now scheduled for new calls at New Jersey, Norfolk and Philadelphia.

Freight diversions to more distant ports will raise trucking costs for US importers and shippers, but excess truckload capacity is expected to dilute the disruption. 

The bankrupt LTL provider failed to exhaust grievance procedures in its own contract as it battled the Teamsters over restructuring plans, a US District Court ruled.

Still, forwarders generally believe that while prices have room to fall further, it's unlikely the market will return to the end-2023 pre-crisis pricing trendline as long as the uncertain security situation in the Red Sea persists.

Maersk has been a lone exception to the truism that customer demands for neutrality inevitably lead carrier-owned forwarders to be structurally independent.

With the fifth-largest container port on the US East Coast now effectively isolated from waterborne traffic, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship will, at least temporarily, reconfigure the region’s supply chain.

Oil and gas supply chains are in jeopardy as the government of Equatorial Guinea announces that it plans to nationalize a major port asset owned by Netherlands-based UAL Group.

The Georgia Ports Authority is expanding the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal to eventually grow its annual container capacity from 300,000 TEUs to 1.5 million TEUs.

Months of strike action by the union severely disrupted Germany’s rail freight network, with the impact on inland transportation often spilling over the country’s borders.

The top end of the global 3PL sector is populated by companies that see a down market as a chance to focus on higher-yield customers and those that see a chance to build market share.